Steam has clear rules when it comes to purchasing conditions for games – at least for now. The platform has adjusted its rules for refunds and thus closed a major gap. This primarily protects early access games.
Steam has adjusted its guidelines
All gamers probably know it: you buy a game because it looks interesting, because you've heard good things, or just to be able to play with someone. But in the end you just don't warm up to it. This is where Steam accommodates players because users can have games refunded within 14 days if they want them two hours at most have played.
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It's different so far with early access games. Here, the game-relevant hours were only taken into account after the official publication potential abuse made possible. This affected numerous early access games such as Supermarket Simulator, Pioneers of Pagonia and Lethal Company.
The regulation has been revised to protect developers and publishers: for early access games, the 14-day period starts on the date of full release. However, the maximum playing time is from now on also calculated before this date. This means players can return Early Access games until their official release, provided they have played them for a maximum of two hours (source: Steam).
The 2-hour rule also applies to Advanced Access. Each game time counts toward the two-hour refund limit. Pre-ordered titles that are not playable prior to the release date may be refunded at any time prior to their release. The default one 14 day/2 hour refund period begins with the game's release date.
Supermarket Simulator is one of the currently popular early access games:
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More and more Early Access on Steam
The number of early access games on Steam is increasing, as a graphic on SteamDB shows. While in 2013 there were just 3 games in 2023 it will already be over 2,000. Many developers today rely on player feedback to adjust games and fix major bugs before they are officially released (Source: SteamDB).